Topic: Division after World War ll.
Essay: Minimum
Level: Highschool
Subject: Social Studies
North Korea and South Korea, who emerged out of the occupation zones imposed by the Soviet Union and the United States at the close of World War II, engaged in a civil war known today as the Korean War. After World War II, the Korean Peninsula failed to have democratic elections; as a result, the North created a communist government and the South one based on capitalism, further dividing the two sides. The 38th parallel increasingly served as a dividing line between the two Korean governments on a political level. Even though there were still reunion talks going on in the months before the conflict, anxiety rose. At the 38th Parallel, border raids and clashes persisted. When North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, the situation deteriorated into an open conflict.
It was the Cold War's first big military battle. The Soviet Union boycotted the United Nations Security Council in 1950 in retaliation for the Kuomintang/Republic of China government's representation of China, which had fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War. The US and other nations passed a Security Council resolution authorizing military participation in Korea without opposition from the Soviet Union, which might have vetoed it.
Eighty-eight percent of the 341,000 foreign soldiers who helped South Korean forces thwart the invasion came from the United States of America, with support from twenty other UN member states. After suffering heavy losses, the defenders were forced to retreat within two months to the Pusan perimeter, a tiny region in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The People's Republic of China (PRC) then joined the conflict on North Korea's side, after which a swift U.N. counteroffensive drove the North Koreans across the 38th Parallel and nearly to the Yalu River. The Southern allies were compelled to retire below the 38th Parallel as a result of Chinese intervention. The Soviet Union gave material support to the North Korean and Chinese armies, but did not send troops into the fight.
When the armistice agreement was reached on July 27, 1953, the war's active phase came to an end. The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a fortified buffer zone measuring 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in width between the two Korean countries, was established as a result of the agreement, which also restored the boundary between the Koreas along the 38th Parallel. Even now, there are occasional minor fighting incidents.
The 38th parallel, roughly, still divides Korea. The two countries' Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) remains the most guarded border in the world. People in both the North and the South have a persistent dream of seeing Korea united once more under a single banner.
Thank you.